Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

The Hampstead Mystery by John R. Watson
page 18 of 389 (04%)
Another difficult problem Scotland Yard had to face was the discovery of
the person who had sent them the news of the murder. How had Scotland
Yard's anonymous correspondent learned about the murder, and what were
his motives in informing the police in the way he had done? Was he
connected with the crime? Had the murderer a companion with him when he
broke into Riversbrook for the purpose of burglary? That seemed to be the
most probable explanation. The second man had been horrified at the
murder, and desired to disassociate himself from it so that he might
escape the gallows. The only alternative was to suppose that the murderer
had confessed his crime to some one, and that his confidant had lost no
time in informing the police of the tragedy.

The newspaper accounts of the case threw some light on the private and
domestic affairs of the victim. He was a widower with a grown-up
daughter; his wife, a daughter of the late Sir James Goldsworthy, who
changed his ancient family patronymic from Granville to Goldsworthy on
inheriting the great fortune of an American kinsman, had died eight years
before. Sir Horace's Hampstead household consisted of a housekeeper,
butler, chauffeur, cook, housemaid, kitchenmaid and gardener. With the
exception of the butler the servants had been sent the previous week to
Sir Horace's country house in Dellmere, Sussex. It appeared that Miss
Fewbanks spent most of her time at the country house and came up to
London but rarely. She was at Dellmere when the murder was committed, and
had been under the impression that her father was in Scotland. According
to a report received from the police at Dellmere the first intimation
that Miss Fewbanks had received of the tragic death of her father came
from them. Naturally, she was prostrated with grief at the tragedy.

The butler who had been left behind in charge of Riversbrook was a man
named Hill, but he was not in the house on the night of the tragedy. He
DigitalOcean Referral Badge